Homemade Girl Scout Cookies – Thin Mints!

I couldn’t help myself. Maybe it was because my homemade Samoa experience was so fulfilling or maybe it was just for the satisfaction of crossing these off of my list. But I no longer have to wait for March to get my hands on these every year.<

YOU DON’T OWN ME, GIRL SCOUTS!!!

There is no shortage of versions of this recipe all over the Internet. I found about 5 or 6 during my initial search. Want to try a low carb and gluten free version? Love Thin Mints and do you want them all year round? You can really make these at home and the results are outstanding. I hope you try!

I hadn’t planned on taking pictures throughout the baking process with these but I didn’t think you would believe me that this recipe really will turn out if you give it a try. Just look at how crumbly this dough was at first! I was starting to have my doubts. But press on and you will be happy you did!

Chill, roll out the dough, cut out the cookies, bake, then dip! The rolling out can be tricky as it is crumbly. I used wet hands at times and even microwaved the dough for a few seconds before working with it. Next time I may not even chill the dough at all. I found these dark chocolate mint candy melts at Pat Catan’s. You could use chocolate chips and peppermint extract too.

Directions:

Cookie dough: In a mixer cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and continue to cream, scraping the sides of the bowl a couple times if necessary. Stir in the vanilla extract, salt, and cocoa powder. Mix until the cocoa powder is integrated and the batter is smooth and creamy, resembling a thick frosting. Add the flour and mix just until the batter is no longer dusty looking but still a bit crumbly. Turn the dough out onto a clean counter, gather it into a ball, and knead it together into a nice, smooth mass. Divide the dough in 2, flatten into disks, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 15 minutes.

Rollout and bake: Preheat oven to 350. Roll dough out really thin, about 1/8-inch. These are called thin mints after all. You can either roll it out between two sheets of plastic, or dust your counter and rolling pin with a bit of flour and do it that way. If the dough is too firm to roll you can microwave it for 5 seconds. Cut out cookies and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the peppermint coating: Meanwhile, prepare your chocolate coating. Using a double boiler, slowly melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until it is glossy and smooth. You can add 1 tablespoon of shortening if your chocolate is too thick. Alternatively, use a microwave in short 15-20 second bursts to melt the chocolate. Stir in the peppermint extract if you don’t have the mint candy melts.

Finishing the cookies: Using a fork gently drop the cookies one at a time into the chocolate coating. Flip to coat all sides. Lift the cookie out of the chocolate with the fork and bang the fork on the side of the pan to drain any extra chocolate off the cookie. You are after a thin, even coating of chocolate. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, and repeat for the rest of the cookies. Place the cookies in the refrigerator or freezer to set.

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109 Responses to “Homemade Girl Scout Cookies – Thin Mints!”

I can almost smell the chocolate-mint through the screen. These will be printed and baked because I must have fallen off the Girl Scout radar for good. Didn’t get even one sales pitch this year from a neighborhood girl or co-worker’s daughter. You must share where you found the dark mint melts.

Mary – I added about a tablespoon of Crisco to the chocolate to make it smooth. I think it added a nice sheen. Then I just used two forks and passed the cookie back and forth until enough chocolate dripped off. I kind of can’t believe how easy these were to make!

Great post and my favorite Girl Scout Cookie. I ordered one box back in October and it seems that the cookies have really shrunk while the price continues to rise. Girl Scouts don’t own me now either LOL!

I haven’t seen a GS either! The price for cookies this year is $4 for a box that lasts 20 minutes. Thanks for posting a picture of the dough – it’s great to know in advance when something might be scary! : )

Well done!! I love that this is “healthier” than the GS version. I so wish they would take out the hydrogenated oils from all of their cookies. I had a hard time having my girls sell something that I had preached at them to never have. But you gotta love the Think Mint. Great job!

Oh my gosh, I want to give you a big hug. In a house full of boys, I’m not rewarded during Girl Scout season and this year, I’ve been searching high and low (why is it kids won’t come door to door in San Francisco!). I love that you have just unlocked the Girl Scout handcuffs, thank you!

First of all Congrats on making the top 9!!! Now lets get down to business! Your cookies look amazing! I will be making these this weekend because I did not buy any thin mints yet and I NEED Chocolate mint cookie yummyness now!!! 🙂 I am glad to find your blog! Looking forward to future posts!

In the process of making these right now for a friend that was lamenting the lack of GS Thin Mints available in the summer, and I seem to have a bit of trouble with the dough. I had a really hard time getting it to roll out smoothly – it just kept wanting to flake up, even though it wasn’t crumbly. After finally getting them all rolled, cut and baked, I’ve noticed that a good number ended up with hollow bottoms, again seeming to be a result of the dough being rather flaky. Any thoughts on where I might have went wrong? Or do these just need a cooler (i.e., not un-air conditioned in July) kitchen to get the butter to cooperate? Thanks!

I was so excited to make these. For the ladies who had trouble rolling the dough out, my dough came out nice and moist. I creamed the butter for a while, so I think that kept the dough moist. I also layed one sheet of clear wrap on the counter, put some dough down, and then added another sheet and I started to roll and that really worked nicely. It was so easy to cut them out. I did not have a cookie cutter so I used the top of my ground cinnamon jar. I figured a spice that wouldn’t affect the taste of the cookie was cinnamon. My only issue is with the cookie itself. The cookie tastes really bad without the mint coating. They taste like pure cocoa powder. It did not taste like a cookie. There’s no way I would have served them alone. I melted my mint chips and it made the cookies better but they taste like powder. I used exact measurements. What would you suggest?

I just made the thin mints but used only a 1/2 cup cocoa instead of 1 cup and added 1 Tbsp milk and 1/2 tsp peppermint extract to the dough. This kept the dough together wonderfully. Covered them with melted mint chocolate chips. I also rolled them out between wax paper.

Just tried these! Am letting them cool now and will attempt to coat them in the peppermint chocolate, although I have a feeling most of them are going to end up crumbling. The dough came out pretty dry, but they taste exactly like the cookie! Next time might add a tsp of water or melted butter just to make sure they stay compact enough to handle. I see I’m not the only one with this issue, so all we can do is try again because they are just too tasty not to!

I just made these. I didn’t have trouble with dough, but baked cookie had such a strong chocolate flavor to it that no one will eat them. It is like eating unsweetened cocoa powder in cookie form. Has anyone else had this problem? I even added almost a cup of extra pwd. Sugar trying to make them sweeter. I want to make again and tweek, but wondering if it will mess with the consistancy of the dough.

so i followed the recipe exactly how it was written, the dough did not turn out how it was supposed to, the cookies tasted way to bitter, the unsweetened cocoa powder over powered the whole thing.. The dough wouldnt even stay together it just kept crumbling. we tried the chocoletecoating and it just clobbed on it and looked like a mound of chocolete, but still made the cookies have no flaver…. needless to say the recipe didnt work 🙁

As with many others, my cookies were very bitter from so much cocoa powder. Suggestions to correct this issue without altering the density of the cookie? Also, the cookie was a little too soft, needs more of a ‘crunch.’ I threw about 2 dozen cookies away and didn’t even finish cutting out the dough. They were terrible. Really would like to hear your suggestions on how to correct the bitterness.

I have to tell you, adding the mint extract to the regular chocolate did not work at all for me. The chocolate had melted well, but as soon as I added the mint, it thickened instantly. I tried again, adding the mint at the beginning and melting it all together…I achieved something around the consistency of peanut butter, which I had to spread with a knife onto the cookies. So yeah…regular chocolate + mint extract = big fail.

I do think the chocolate coating should be pretty sweet to go with these cookies, which are not very sweet (but otherwise excellent), as some have already mentioned. I’m pretty sure mine are going to come out fairly bitter tasting since I used “bittersweet chocolate”, which isn’t even as sweet as semisweet. Hmmm….I’ll have to eat these with ice cream. I think I’ll cope. 😉